American multinational technology conglomerate
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is the European, Middle Eastern, and African headquarters of Meta Platforms, Inc., the NASDAQ-listed parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads, and Reality Labs. The Irish entity was incorporated in Dublin in 2008 as Facebook Ireland Limited and rebranded to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited in 2022 following the group-level change.
Its registered office is at 4 Grand Canal Square in the Dublin docklands, with additional offices along Grand Canal in Dublin 4. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited employs thousands of staff across engineering, policy, integrity, sales, legal, community operations, and trust-and-safety functions, and is the contractual counterparty for most EMEA advertisers on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
The Irish subsidiary is also the controller of personal data for users across the European Economic Area and has been central to numerous Irish Data Protection Commission decisions and associated fines under the General Data Protection Regulation. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meta Platforms, Inc., with several intermediate holding entities in the chain.
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited sits alongside Google Ireland and Apple Operations International as one of the three landmark examples of the Irish EMEA subsidiary playbook. The company is a private limited company incorporated under the Irish Companies Act 2014, registered at the Companies Registration Office under number 462932.
It is wholly owned by Meta Platforms, Inc., the Delaware-incorporated parent listed on NASDAQ under ticker META, through a chain of intermediate US and Irish holding companies.
From Ireland, Meta contracts with advertisers across the European Economic Area, acts as the lead General Data Protection Regulation controller for EEA users, and handles policy and content-moderation interactions with European Union regulators.
The Dublin entity has been at the centre of some of the largest GDPR enforcement actions on record, including multi-hundred-million-euro fines related to data-transfer frameworks, behavioural-advertising lawfulness, and child-safety standards, each of which has shaped the wider European regulatory debate.
Ireland's 12.5 percent trading corporation tax rate, EU membership, and deep pool of English-speaking talent continue to drive the business case, while Dublin's role as lead GDPR supervisory authority under the one-stop-shop mechanism concentrates regulatory interaction with a single national authority, the Data Protection Commission.
The 2020 winding down of the Double Irish structure moved a larger share of Meta's EMEA profits into direct Irish taxation, and the 2024 Pillar Two 15 percent minimum tax applies to in-scope parts of the group, with Ireland's implementing legislation adopted into domestic law in line with OECD guidance.
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is registered at the Companies Registration Office under number 462932. It was incorporated in 2008 as Facebook Ireland Limited and renamed to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited in 2022 following the group-level rebrand. Statutory accounts, directors, persons with significant influence, and beneficial ownership are filed under the Irish Companies Act 2014.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation one-stop-shop mechanism, the data-protection authority of the country where a controller has its main EU establishment becomes the lead authority for cross-border processing.
Because Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is the main EEA establishment for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, the Irish Data Protection Commission leads most cross-border GDPR investigations into Meta, coordinating with other supervisory authorities through the European Data Protection Board.
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is a separate legal entity from the US parent, Meta Platforms, Inc., which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other products at a corporate level. Prior to 2022 the Irish entity was named Facebook Ireland Limited. The rebrand reflected the group-level shift to a Meta-branded holding company, not a change in ownership or operational scope at the Irish subsidiary.
A large portion of Meta's EMEA advertising revenue is booked through Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, which is subject to Irish corporation tax at 12.5 percent on trading profits, adjusted for transfer-pricing allocations and, since 2024, Pillar Two top-up rules as they apply to in-scope parts of the group. The 2020 closure of the Double Irish structure significantly increased taxable profit in Ireland.
Specific figures are disclosed in annual accounts filed at the CRO.
